Did Ancient Humans Do Nothing for 100,000 Years?

Think about how long 100,000 years would be. It’s really an incomprehensible amount of time. Think of how many generations would come and go. Consider how many humans would be observing, exploring, experimenting, learning, and modifying their environment in that amount of time. It’s easy to show how our current world population of eight billion is easily attainable starting with six people (Noah’s sons and their wives) just 4,300 years ago—population growth is exponential. So imagine how many more people there would be on earth, and how much they would have accomplished, if given 100,000 years instead. A time period of 4,300 years is short compared to a supposed 100,000!!!

Consider that in 1903 the Wright brothers accomplished the first powered flight. A mere 66 years later, astronauts walked on the moon. Even if we rounded to 100 years (for easy math) from the first powered flight to a man on the moon, that amount of time would have passed 1,000 times over in a supposed 100,000 years.

Okay, why do I bring this up?

Well, I recently saw this headline: “Enigmatic Denisovans lived by cave in what is now China for 100,000 years, rare fossils and handcrafted tools reveal.” According to the article, a new study of a Chinese cave has uncovered the first-ever radius (one of the paired bones in the arm) of a Denisovan, a supposed human cousin (in the biblical worldview, of course, Denisovans were full-fledged human beings, descendants of Adam who lived after the global Flood).

It’s worth noting that this arm bone combined Neanderthal and modern human features. That’s no surprise—Denisovans, Neanderthals, and modern humans are all human beings! The piece of human bone was found in a cave, as were “thousands of prehistoric animal bones and stone tools.”

According to the popular science article, “[The cave] was used by Denisovans for more than 100,000 years.” So for 100,000 years, these “early humans” simply lived in a cave, hunting and gathering with simple stone tools. For 100,000 years. They didn’t invent farming; they didn’t significantly increase their technology. They didn’t go and explore and settle new areas. They just lived in this cave, eating the same things and using the same tools, for millennia after millennia after millennia. Have you ever stopped and thought about what a ridiculous claim that is?

In the evolutionary worldview, agriculture was not invented until about 12,000 years ago. After that, technology began to rapidly improve, and in just a short few thousand years, we went from working with metals to building complex structures aligned with the heavens to putting a man on the moon. But for tens of thousands of years, early humans couldn’t even discover that planting a seed in the ground would make more seeds that could then be eaten or planted for even more seeds?

Mankind was created intelligent.

Evolution is just a fairy tale. The biblical worldview makes much better sense of the evidence. Mankind was created intelligent. Within just one generation, Adam and Eve’s children were planting crops and raising flocks (Genesis 4:2) and even building cities (Genesis 4:17). A few generations later, people were working with metals and making musical instruments (Genesis 4:21–22).

Then there was a global Flood that reduced the population to just eight people. The Flood was followed by an Ice Age, making much of the world very inhospitable and limiting resources, especially in northern areas. During this time, people in the harder hit areas often lived in caves and had fairly simple technology. As the population expanded and the Ice Age ended (roughly 2000-1800 BC), there was an increase in human technology that has continued to this day.

The Bible makes sense of what we observe!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.